Since Felipe Calderon took office in late 2006 and launched an assault on drug cartels, somewhere…
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Mexico finds itself in the midst of two wars: the war against organized crime and, until July 1, the war over the presidential election. As if the daily anxiety from insecurity, the finding of dead corpses all over the country, and the attacks on corporations like Sabritas, Renault, and Volkswagen were not enough for us Mexicans to handle, we now have to fear the political low-blows taking place.

Anyone would say that these two topics are wholly unrelated, but in reality they go hand in hand. The present administration is blamed for over 60,000 deaths resulting from their war against organized crime. Add to this horrific sum the death of thousands of innocent lives through cross fire and mistaken executions, collateral damage that includes innocent women and children.

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CAPTURES

The ruling political party (National Action Party) defends itself against political attacks by publicizing their success in capturing dozens of drug cartel leaders. And it's true; they've arrested bosses from the Zeta Cartel, the Knights Templar cartel, the Michoacan Family, the Gulf Cartel, Beltrán-Leyva Cartel, and the Tijuana Cartel. The only figure missing from their list is Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán, the head of the Sinaloa Cartel. This fact is used in the political war to undermine the credibility of the present administration. The opposing candidates also use the weight of 60,000 casualties to proselytize voters.

But since all is fair in love and war, US investigations against ex-priísta Governors (Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI)) have recently been revealed; accusations that no one would have doubted for an instance had they not come to light precisely a couple of weeks before the elections. Manuel Cavazos, Tomas Yarrington, and Eugenio Hernandez are accused of money laundering, fiscal crimes, and illicit profiteering during their reign as Governors of the state of Tamaulipas from 1993-2010.

Dirty war, protest the priístas, but anything goes in war.

Margarito Genchi Casiano.

WEEKLY DAMAGE REPORT

The latest victim of this "double war" is Margarito Genchi Casiano, the former Mayor of Florencio Villarreal and local congressional candidate for the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD). He was assassinated in the Costa Chica of Guerrero. The tragic event took place June 11 in Llano Largo, near the municipality of Cruz Grande. Just four days earlier, Genchi Casiano had attended a campaign rally for PRD's presidential candidate, Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

MASSACRE

The remains of 14 unidentified bodies were found last Thursday inside a pick-up truck stationed a few blocks away from the Mayor's office of Mante, Tamaulipas. The Governor of Tamaulipas has confirmed that the corpses were abandoned in broad daylight inside a privately owned pick-up truck. Authorities add that the Police and Forensic Medical Examiners have been unable to identify the cadavers of the 11 men and three women; therefore, they remain at the local Semefo, or the office of Forensic Medical Examiners.